bobinc

Used the #6 quite a bit at Red Rocks last fall. Really liked the flex stem and the trigger action. That size seems to be about equiv to the .5 BD Cam but lighter. Also got one of the joke sizes (#2) but it will take some practice before I'm willing to hang on it. Really, it does look like it will break without much trouble. But the nominal strength rating is pretty impressive and it is an active device...

Investigated the snowpack in the Wasatch. It's even worse than here! Beautiful spring conditions in January but with much less snow. Still, found a few hundred feet of okay recrystallized snow in the trees here and there and met some cool people.

Check with estivate; he's spent a lot of time on that side getting intimate with the brush. Also, I think his website may be helpful: midforc.org or somesuch.

I'm sure you also support higher wages for daycare workers, eh?

Thought he was born in '21 or '22. Perhaps I have him confused with Bukowski. Regardless, he's already immortal.

The Forest Service is a branch of the US Dept of Agriculture. Douglas Fir == coniferous corn

If you include the full approach up the old skidder track, it could be considered a Class V!

Depends on the wind, especially in the morning (after you've been in your tent for 12 hrs or so...) But once you're on the south-facing rock, all is well.

Good points, Chuck. Something on the order of 500,000 (mostly children) have died in the last 10 yrs because of the boycott. If that isn't war, I don't know what is.

Point 4: Once we do our good deeds in killing all the bad people in Iraq, good people will rush in and rule the country to the benefit of all Iraqis. This is more or less what Paul Wolfowitz has assumed all along. It flies in the face of history, especially if you look at the religious schisms in Iraq. Very little attention has been devoted to this issue. Almost every discussion (if you can call it that) focuses on the "getting even" aspect of bombing Al Quaeda or Iraq or whatever stand-in one chooses and leaves out the issue of what comes next.

Does anyone know who the second skier is?

Apparently, the festival is supposed to happen on May Day. Running the livestock through the fire is intended to ward off disease or perhaps as just a sacrifice. There was a pretty good Seattle band known as the Beltanes that played for a few years in the late 80s.

Cavity Search Dicky C's Secret Hideout Scalia's Pet Rock (AKA Clarence Thomas)

Hey TLG, isn't there some special holiday "firewood" behind the counter?

But of course. It all comes from the ritual violence gene.

Actually, a lot of ophioloitic formations are found in California. Get ahold of Assembling California, by John McPhee.

I always thought it was olivine (like Dru sez, more or less) with high i-ron content (hence the color).

Yes; I think it's like training for bowling.

Josh -- a good friend of mine has explored quite a bit up around there, but not sure if he has gone exactly where you want to go. Let me know if you are interested in contacting him. Bob Davis

I think the Avalung was designed by crash pad engineers. But one could rightly argue crash pads are much more effective.

Sorry to hear about the whipper on POD, Winter. Let's see... -- getting up some RRocks classics, including Ginger Cracks and POD, the latter on Dec 27 with hand warmers under the shoelaces -- Stuart Ice Cliff Glacier in winter conditions (in June); perhaps this could also go under low-lights... -- Lyman Glacier on Chiwawa in perfect weather -- getting up some Yosemite and Josh Classics with an amenable rope gun doing most of the heavy lifting: Central Pillar of Frenzy, Serenity Crack, Bird of Fire, Exorcist, Diamond Dogs Low light: working too much and not climbing enough

Too bad, Allison. The guy that took the bone spurs off my big toes years ago was totally mellow -- painted landscapes and fished for steelhead. And I can still walk. Perhaps the local problem is a consequence of practicing amongst so many Beautiful People. But he's competent, right?

Winter, what happened on POD?

Last I checked (a few yrs ago), one had to get something on the order of 11,000 member signatures to become a candidate for the Board. So much for challenging the "incumbents".

It would be more honest of REI to take "co-op" out of its name. The whole idea of the co-op is to increase buying power for a group of people who can't find what they need through the normal channels. This hasn't been true for a long time, and the dividend is nothing more than a vestigial reminder of the quaint past. In the late 70s, when REI started to feel pressure from elsewhere, it decided to go away from its roots and become the Costco of import clothing and outdoor trinkets to avoid bankruptcy. REI had to get bigger to survive, and this was the tradeoff. Now we have a flagship store that is a monument to excess and waste (it failed 2/3 of the WA State Energy Code), and this design is being replicated in other cities. But REI is able to fool enough people who don't know any better, the bottom line looks good, and so what if you can't find pickets in April?